#CyberFLASH: Russian hackers hijack webcams worldwide — including at least four in Ottawa

Hackers have created a website to hijack the webcam feeds of more than 73,000 people, including hundreds from Canada — and apparently at least four from Ottawa — and are sharing those video feeds with peeping Toms the world over.

The hackers’ website, believed to be based in Moscow, has collected live feeds from webcams around the world, showing the daily goings on within people’s homes, daycares, businesses and thousands of other locations. The site has 243 webcams that it claims originate in Canada.

One camera, which has geolocation data claiming that it originates in Orléans, shows the inside of someone’s kitchen where a load of groceries appears to have been dumped on the countertop. Another, located in a person’s apartment downtown, showed an orange-clad woman sitting at a table for a good part of the afternoon. A third simply monitors an Ottawan’s front driveway, while the fourth stands guard over somebody’s back door.